The Dark Night Alchemist
by Resident Asian
Summary: If there is one thing Ayame Mikimoto wants to be, it's a State Alchemist. If there's another thing, it's to see her brother who has killed many dead. Will she achieve her dreams or will her brother stand in the way like he has throughout her entire life?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: this is my fan-fiction that features my OC. Sure, there are going to be characters from the series popping up, but it's OC-centric.

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist – I don't think I'm that creative to come up with a story line like that.

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><p>It was a typical hot, sunny day in East City. The wind was blowing hard enough to cool some of the unlucky ones working outside, but other than that, it seemed pretty normal for the city. Meanwhile, a young Xingese girl wearing a black trench coat long past her knees started to enter the city. She had no problem wearing the open coat, revealing a dark blue v-neck t-shirt with a simple white trim along the edges. On the right side of the V, the white trim extended down towards her waist and made a little jacket out of the shirt. She wore black shorts and sandals and kept her hair down. She stopped for a moment and fixed her sandals. "God, I think I need to buy new ones once I get some money," she grumbled in Xingese. Suddenly a puff of dust rose from behind her and the girl turned around.<p>

A voice murmured, "It's so damn hot here…"

"At least we're out of the desert," the Xingese girl noted. "But maybe if you took off your coat, then this wouldn't be a problem in the first place."

The voice scoffed, "Look who's talking! You're wearing a fucking black trench coat."

She groaned, "Look Megumi, just shut up. I don't want to deal with all the glares… I swear, all Amestrians think I'm crazy because it looks like I'm talking to myself!"

"That's because you _are_ crazy, Ayame!" Ayame growled, grabbing something in the air. A person covered in a beige colored cloak appeared and Ayame was holding on to that person's arm. Megumi took off her hood, revealing her short brown hair tied in a tiny ponytail. The wind picked up again, jingling the small bells dangling from the base of the ponytail. Two bird feathers swayed to the right as she sighed deeply, "The feels a hell lot better."

Ayame turned around quickly, "Keep yourself covered until we find brother's hiding spot," she withdrew a piece of paper from her pocket with Xingese text sprawled all over. Muttering to herself in Amestrian, Ayame said," West Apartment A, room 326… Key in flower pot." She then stuffed the paper back in her pocket and addressed Megumi in Xingese, "Besides, only I am supposed to be here legally. If any one from the State Military sees you… Well…" Ayame gulped, "Let's make sure that doesn't happen."

"Right, that's why we made sure I could do this technique and not get detected before leaving," Megumi said as Ayame kept moving forward. Suddenly, silence grew between the two girls as Ayame was getting closer towards civilization and people. She kept on her mind the reason she was in Amestris. While the boarder patrol people believe that she's a traveler who goes to Amestris with her family, Ayame and Megumi knew that the Mikimoto family could not even get their asses to Amestris unless the Chang family were to be escorted first. The main reason why Ayame was here was mainly to become a State Alchemist. She fell to the pull of alchemy when she was young and her brother was studying it. She dreamed of the day when she would learn more from the people of Amestris and travel out of Xing, but while the Chang family holds a huge foot on the growth of the Mikimoto family, Ayame knew that her dream would never succeed. She would never admit this kind of deal to Megumi, who was busy learning Alkahestry.

Learning Alkahestry was hard for Ayame, but a breeze for Megumi. Ayame rather fight one on one against someone than let chi control how she would move. Their older brother saw how much she loved alchemy and together, they worked to better their skills. Alchemy was good until her brother saw more into it and caused something that made Ayame ashamed that he had to be her brother.

Another reason why she was here was because of her brother. She had a thing against him; the two of them wanted to over thrown the Chang family and bring the Mikimoto family back to it's rightful place, but they were opposing sides. While blood shed was in her brother's eyes, Ayame found that negotiation would be better. Ayame's brother wanted the Philosopher's Stone so that the strongest man of the Mikimoto family's ancestry would be brought back to life and rule over the Chang family. But there was something else that he wanted the Stone for. And that, Ayame had no control over.

The final reason was to avoid an assignment. Ayame's brother left for Amestris because he didn't want to "babysit" the Chang Family Princess, May. The thought of it was terrible, and once he was gone, Ayame was next. After her, Megumi. So, in order to save their souls, they all decided to leave. None of them wanted to babysit May, no matter what it costed.

In each situation that Ayame thought about, there were consequences. In the first stage, Ayame faced discrimination by her gender and race. Being a Xingese female could be a factor where she might fail the examination or not be able to take the test. At first glance, Ayame is more of a strong man than a woman, but that's when people were comparing her to the suck ups back home. The one thing that separates Ayame from the men—alchemy. And Ayame had a gift that no one else knew until now.

In the second stage, finding her brother will be hard. They haven't spoken since he left home two years ago. Ayame freaked when she saw what happened to both Megumi and herself, and while her brother fixed Ayame; she wanted Megumi to be fixed as well.

In the third, someone from either the Mikimoto or Chang families might come to find them. It's the main reason (other than her illegal entrance) why Megumi is invisible—she needs to hide. The families need at least one of the Mikimoto Family Head's children to watch over May. Tatsuya wouldn't be found, but Ayame and Megumi would be easily found together.

The girls were always together. It would seem fitting since the two are twin sisters. While they are twins, Megumi and Ayame were complete opposites. The only thing that really made them twins was their facial qualities, but after an accident, they ended up different once again.

Megumi is the quieter one of the twins, which makes sense that she would be hiding underneath a cloak and sneaking off into Amestris with Ayame, the loud mouth and determined one of the twins. Megumi would rather not get into any action, but if comes down to it, she'll fight back. Ayame will kick anyone's ass any day.

Ironically, Megumi is the one who swears the most compared to Ayame. Her older sister believes that since Megumi is quiet all the time and listens to Ayame and Tatsuya swearing, it's become second nature. She does know words that would replace her cussing, but rather get it out than think about it and censor herself.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Megumi whispered softly so that no one would hear her.

Ayame nodded proudly, but inside, she had no freaking idea how to get around East City. Amestris was a weird country for her—the whole country was this big circle that named big cities after the polar directions. Ayame joked, while they were in the desert that a three year old could point out where West, South, East, North, and Central Cities were on a map of Amestris. Even a three-year-old Xingese could do that. "Don't worry about it," she murmured.

She walked up to a lady who was selling flowers at the flower store. She smiled, "Welcome, how may I help you?"

Speaking perfect Amestrian, "I'm kind of lost. I'm supposed to meet my older brother at these apartment buildings," She stared down at the piece of paper, "Uhh… let's see.. West Side Apartments?"

"Oh, wow, you have quite a ways to go," the lady smiled, "If you take this street past the Eastern Command building and turn at the third street, you'll find those buildings. Would you like to buy any flowers?" Ayame stared at all of the flower arrangements. I_ can't con this woman... she's too nice. I gotta start somewhere insanely low—like some vendor. But, I gotta make the gold first._

Ayame shook her head, "No, my brother is allergic. While he thinks I'm a pain, I think it would be a lot worst if I brought flowers."

The saleslady laughed, "Okay, well have a good day then." She turned and headed back into the back of the store.

Megumi whispered, "Why didn't you con her?"

Ayame sighed as she left the shop, "I can't. I don't have the materials for the perfect con."

On their way to East City, Ayame had made herself known to be a great Con Artist. She often used fake gold to get what she wanted. The vendor would be excited to get gold, but then after she was far away, it would turn into coal and he would be ripped off. One of the greatest heists she wanted to do was to duplicate the pocket watches of the State Alchemists and sell them for a good enough profit. However, what they would turn into was a different story, and Ayame questioned if she really just wanted to leave them as pocket watches. She thought of making the emblem disappear, but she needed to be a little bolder.

After following the directions faithfully, the Mikimoto twins arrived at an old building with a rusted sign saying "West Side Apartments, building A." Megumi was happy to finally be resting up in some place instead of being in barns and under trees like they had been for the last couple of weeks leading up to this day. As the stairs squeaked, Megumi feared that people would know that someone was following Ayame. As much as she could, she skipped steps until she crashed through one and grabbed for the back of Ayame's trench coat. She turned around violently, "God, do you have to be ruining everything?" She asked in Amestrian so that no one in their apartments would suspect a Xingese out here. Ayame grabbed her sister's leg and pulled it through, then after looking through the hole and seeing how far they were from the ground, Ayame put her hands together and touched the wood. Instantly, the hole was covered. Just to test it out, Ayame put her foot where Megumi was stuck, and didn't fall in.

"Thanks," Megumi murmured in her best Amestrian. Ayame sighed deeply, not saying anything else to her sister. When the twins had decided to go to Amestris, Ayame tried to learn as much as the language as possible. Megumi decided to pick up whatever Ayame knew how to speak and run with it. It is not like Megumi doesn't understand Amestrian; it is just that Megumi speaks it with a heavy Xingese accent. Ayame had planned this trip for a long time and was already fluent before they left. There was no accent in her voice and she really made people think that she's from here.

When the twins reached the floor and the front door of their apartment, the flowerpot was knocked over and broken into millions of pieces. The key was nowhere to be found, and the twins found themselves locked out of their own home. Megumi growled as she reappeared behind her sister. "Why does Tatsuya have to make it so damn hard for us? I mean, already he's cursed us with the truth shit that you alchemists talk about." She paused for a moment and then muttered, "I used to be pretty."

"Megumi…" Ayame groaned feeling annoyed that she would start ranting until Ayame used her alchemy and shut up her sister. Not listening to her sister, she jiggled the doorknob. It loosened, but fell to the ground. "The apartment better not be torn up."

Picking up the doorknob, Ayame opened the door to find that the room was fairly clean, but dusty. There wasn't any indication that her brother left anything other than a note telling the landlord to take this missing money and saying that this should be enough for the year. As the two girls looked at the note, a gruff man was standing in their doorway. Megumi jumped, for fear that he would turn them into the Military and the twins would be separated. "What are you two girls doing here in Taylor's apartment?"

Taylor. That must've been Tatsuya's name when he came here. Ayame reached into her pocket and felt the lightweight dollars. "We are his sisters."

"Sisters?" The man asked, "He never said anything about sisters."

Ayame sighed. She hoped for this to be all easy, but it looked like it was going to be hard to tell the man that they will own the apartment and they will be taking it over for Taylor. "He doesn't like to talk about us. We're both younger than him and Taylor would rather be an only child than be babysitting us."

The gruff man stroked his beard, "Now that you think about it, he always did complain how his family was annoying… and he was always implying that he worked alone. I wanted to help him on an experiment, but when he looked at me, he said that I wasn't the perfect type." Ayame's eyes widened. What the hell was Tatsuya thinking of doing? He wasn't going to… her mind blanked. No.

"We probably need to pay rent, right?" Ayame asked, pulling out the dollars in her pocket.

The man nodded his hands, "Taylor fixed a lot of things in this old building. I owe him a great gratitude. The apartment is yours. I was just checking out to see who was up here."

Ayame smiled, "Thank you sir."

"What are your names?"

Ayame quickly answered back, "Aya and Meg."

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><p>AN: I promise that someone from FMA will appear in the third chapter. :)

Read and Review! Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: **I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. That is all. I also plan for this series to move a little bit fast... if you think I should go slower, then don't be afraid to PM me and I'll think of something for the twins to do. **

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><p>A couple months had passed since the Mikimoto twins moved into their apartment. They didn't buy anything else to accessorize their apartment since all the stuff that Tatsuya left was sufficient enough for them.<p>

Megumi started to be cautious of her older sister Ayame when news of a serial killer who was targeting alchemists was running around in East City. Ayame, who hasn't shown much in her alchemic powers since coming to Amestris, felt that this serial killer wasn't going to come near her. The majority of the people who were dying were State Alchemists. With that being said, Megumi argued at her sister, "What? No. You are _not _becoming a State Alchemist, Ayame."

Ayame folded her arms across her chest as she sat down on the couch in the living room, "It's one of our goals. You told me to never back down on goals."

"Well this is a different story," Megumi turned away from her, "You're going to get killed—"

"No one has gotten that close to killing me in fighting," Ayame implied.

She rolled her eyes and groaned, "Why couldn't you just be… normal?"

"Normal?" Ayame yelled, standing up and looking at her sister. "It's Tatsuya's damn fault that we're not normal, Megumi. It's his damn fault! We can't go back to being normal, and you can't go back to "being pretty" as you imply it. I bet if you had shown your face out there when we went to the market, a bunch of guys would be looking at you—"

Megumi muttered, "Yeah, a bunch of military guys wondering what the hell a Xingese girl is doing here."

"You don't even look Xingese. In fact, I think it would better if you were the one who was being seen and me who was invisible."

"And talk in this bad of an accent?" Megumi changed her language from Xingese to Amestrian, showing her poor her accent was. "I doubt anyone could understand me."

"You'll get used to it," Ayame sighed as she walked over to the door. Megumi's heart dropped.

"Where are you going?"

"Places."

"You're not going to con some people, are you?"

"I need money." Ayame muttered as she grabbed a sack of silver rings from the table. For the last couple of months, Ayame has been selling these rings to people for a good sum of money. They were easy to create and Ayame wasn't going to con anyone by making the silver rings turn into dust later. She just needed money to survive and to learn more about her abilities before she took the State Alchemist test. After that, it might be easier for the twins. Ayame would technically have a job with the military and would be sent off to do something involving her alchemic powers. What she would do is one thing—Ayame has promised herself to not take any jobs that involve killing someone. She'll kill if she has to, but rather not. All her abilities are lethal, and hopefully, in this land where people have been killed for no reason, the commanding officers do not make her a serial killer.

Ayame went down to the market to buy an apple from the man. She wanted to see if this conning thing would work out here in East. She already passed by small groups of Military Men and Women—all in their traditional blue uniforms. Some of them were traveling very quickly around the streets. Word of a fight was going on. She urged the feeling to go and check out the fight—possibly getting into it—but instead, she continued on to the market, hearing gun shots and buildings being smashed.

"It must be some alchemist battle," Ayame muttered to herself, "One that has to do with the military." Then, she realized what her sister said earlier about the serial killer. "Must be that guy."

Ayame couldn't help but think about her sister. She felt guilty that Tatsuya had helped her instead of Megumi when that day happened. She felt like Megumi, the beauty princess of the Mikimoto Family, had to get back to what she looked like. Ayame could survive on what she sacrificed to an extent, but she freaked out and demanded that her brother fixed her before he left. All this guilt… Ayame still carried.

That day was cloudy, she remembers. Her brother was drawing a transmutation circle in an outpost outside of their home in Xing. Earlier that day, Ayame was helping her brother grab all the necessary elements that would eventually make up one human. She didn't know what was going on; she just followed her brother with awe, knowing that what he was going to do was going to be awesome and she was going to be a part of it. After drawing the circle and grabbing the elements, Tatsuya turned to his younger sister, "Go get Megumi—"

Ayame argued, "But she can barely do alchemy!"

He shook his head violently, "It doesn't matter. I need three people to perform this transmutation and it doesn't matter what kind of alchemic power they possess! Now do it!"

Ayame ran in fear. Tatsuya has always been a manipulative, controlling brother ever since the twins were seven. They don't remember a time when he was compassionate towards them. He forced Ayame to teach him alchemy when she learned how to from a book that one of the gardeners gave her. After realizing that the book was written in Amestrian, he demanded that he learn the language from the gardener along with Ayame.

Megumi came with Ayame into the hideout. By then, Tatsuya was bored and twirling around his sais that he had recently poked Ayame's leg with when they fought again. "Hold out your wrists," he commanded the two girls, "We need blood samples."

Reluctantly, Ayame and Megumi let their older brother slit their wrists and let the blood fall into the transmutation circle. "Take a spot over there towards the top of the circle, Ayame. Megumi, you stay next to me."

"We're not going to do alchemy are we?" Megumi whined.

Tatsuya slapped his sister, "Shut up! You're just going to help Ayame and me with this project. After this, you don't need to do any more alchemy! Understand?" Megumi nodded slowly, "Good. Put your hands on the circle. Let's end the Chang family."

Ayame, scared to even touch the circle, followed her brother's orders. She didn't want to end the Changs, as much as she hated them, instead she wanted to negotiate, but her brother was pulling her into a dark hole that she couldn't get out of.

Performing the transmutation, all three of them had opened the Gate of Truth and were sucked in. Tatsuya sacrificed his mentality. While the girls wanted to have a choice, Tatsuya decided for them. Megumi lost the life in her hair and the ability to alchemy. This meant that her hair was forever short and brown. With Ayame, he took her right leg and her ability to do alkahestry. Tatsuya thought that at least now, the twins could suffer and he wouldn't have to deal with it.

When the three of them woke up, Ayame was screaming at the blood gushing out of her right thigh. The thing in the middle of the circle wasn't moving—it was a failed human transmutation—and Megumi was staring at it with horror. She screamed, running away and not realizing that her hair was different than earlier. Ayame kept on yelling at her brother, "My leg! My leg dammit! You removed my fucking leg!"

Tatsuya growled, knowing that what he was trying to resurrect did not work out as planned. He noticed that Megumi was gone, and knew that she would probably tell on their parents that he did something wrong. He had to make it so that he didn't do anything wrong… He destroyed the thing in the circle and came over to his sister. She was still screaming at him to fix her, not understanding what had happened. She rose up and hit him in the face. The two fought, dispite Ayame having only one leg to move on. She knew how to fight with one limb down, but her ability to do so was hindered. He whacked her back on the ground yelling, "Do you want to be legless?" He saw the horror in his sister's eyes and started to feel guilty. He drew another transmutation circle next to Ayame and put her on top of it. "You're not going to kill me, are you?" Ayame quivered. He revealed a red gem from his pocket. Ayame's eyes widened. "That's the…"

"Philosopher's stone. I killed a family of Changs last month. Their souls were good for this stone. I wish I could destroy the Changs all together, but… I think someone else would rather do that."

"You were… trying to resurrect… Kaideki… Mikimoto?" Ayame weakly asked.

Her brother nodded, "He died in the hands of the Changs and called for revenge against them, but we were stripped of our power and of our pride. And since then, the Changs have been over us. It's about time they learn their lesson to never mess with the Mikimotos. It does not matter if they are apart of the Emperor, we are…" He stopped and listened to the people above ground. Megumi was directing people over here. Tatsuya used the Philosopher's stone to restore Ayame's right leg and then disappeared. By the time the family came to rescue Ayame, they saw blood on the ground.

"What happened here?" their father asked.

"Tatsuya left," was all that Ayame could say.

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><p>Ayame ignored the battle going on in the next block and decided to go into an alleyway to do some transmutations. First, she took off her jacket and transmuted it so that it would be shorter and it would have a hood. Secondly, she transmuted a pile of rocks and coal into gold and stuffed it in her pockets. She had a sinister smile on her face as she went to a food vendor.<p>

"How may I help you?" He asked as Ayame curiously looked at the apples and the fruit. She took four apples.

"How much?"

"50 Cenz."

"I-I a traveler," Ayame started to speak in a broken language, "I no have Cenz. But, I have gold." She showed the man the gold in her pocket. His eyes widened as he dreamed about all the things he would do with the gold.

"Gimmie!" He put his hands out as Ayame stuck three apples in her pocket and gave a handful of gold to the man. She turned around and started to walk off with one apple in her mouth. She could see a group of military men and women across the alley, examining what was going on. She could hear what they were yelling about, but didn't pay attention. She kept on walking towards them, hoping that the gold wouldn't melt… "HEY!" The man looked down at his gold as it started to turn back into stones. He jumped over his counter and started to run after Ayame. "GET BACK HERE!"

"Oh shit," She started to run away from the man, towards all the military people. As she was getting closer to them, the man started to yell.

"HEY! That girl stole my food! She scammed me!" Ayame ran through the military group, into the alley and almost tripped over a piece of metal on the ground. "Get her!"

Ayame turned to see if the man was still chasing her, but now it had turned out that two other men were chasing her. "Wait!" One of the men had spikes on his gloves and smashed something, creating a wall in the next alley. She suddenly changed direction and saw a red lightning bolt turn the corner. A huge explosion erupted in front of her, but she was still able to get out of the dust and keep on moving. She turned once more to see those two men—one looked Xingese to her, the other one wasn't wearing a shirt—still behind her. She watched carefully and thought about how to avoid them. She saw another lightning bolt, but it missed the corner once again. "The man uses flame alchemy," she muttered to herself in Xingese.

Ayame looked to the tops of the buildings, surely there would still be some water in the pipes. Clasping her hands together, she touched a couple of pipes, making them burst open and spray water everywhere. The Xingese man stopped after all the water was put on him. He growled, as he couldn't do anything else to help with the effort. The shirtless man, however, made another wall right in front of Ayame, but it didn't stop her. She easily climbed up over the wall and ran into a different alley.

She changed her appearance from a girl to a teenage boy with a longer jacket. She stopped running, went out into the main streets and decided to walk home.

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><p>"Man, chief, for a girl like her, she found out your weakness pretty easily," 2nd Lieutenant Jean Havoc said, walking over to the Xingese-looking man standing all wet.<p>

"Do you even know who she is?" he asked.

"I don't think I've ever seen an alchemist like her before," Major Alex Louis Armstrong came back to Colonel Roy Mustang.

"I don't think I have too," Roy muttered, looking back at the alley.

A military police man came up to the alchemist, showing a little piece of paper that he found on the ground. "The girl is Xingese."

"What?" Armstrong handed the paper to Roy, who looked at it carefully. He knew how to read Xingese and write it, but his understanding of it was a little bit blurry since he didn't utilize the skill until now.

Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes arrived, claiming that he was surrounded by freaks and didn't want to be involved with the gold incident. He was already hog tied with the serial killer and what damage has been dealt on the neighborhood. "Roy, you read Xingese?"

"I used to know it," he muttered, clutching the paper. The note had many sentences written on it, but in the middle was one circled many times in pencil. Mustang was trying to read the name in the circle—only getting "The" and "Alchemist". He was trying to piece together what were the middle two words until, "The Dark Night Alchemist."

"What was that?" Hughes asked, looking over at the piece of paper.

"She calls herself the Dark Night Alchemist," he repeated, "but by the looks of it… she used the wrong spelling for "knight". Unless…" The old man vendor was standing with them now, furious and demanding to be repaid. The men dealt with the vendor, giving him the money the girl owed. However, Roy Mustang could not get his mind off the Dark Night Alchemist.

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><p><strong>AN: Please Review. That's all I ask for!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist... but I do own Ayame and Megumi Mikimoto and any other OC that pops up.**

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><p>Ayame and Megumi were good at stealing things off trains. When they first came to Amestris, they stow away in a train that was carrying cloths that were from Xing. The twins wanted to ditch their Xingese garb and get clothes that made them look more Westernized. On the train ride from the Amestrian boarder to the town of Risembool, Ayame transmuted a couple pieces of clothing from the fabric that was in the car they were stowed away in. After arriving in Risembool, they ditched the train and headed to East City on foot.<p>

It wouldn't be a surprise that the girls managed to take a little trip out of the East City and hitched on a train going back to Risembool. They jumped on a car full of sheep. "God, Ayame did you have to pick this one?"

Ayame sighed deeply, "It was the only one with an open door. Just suck it up and make sure none of them touch you. Keep invisible." Ayame left Megumi standing in a corner where none of the sheep were standing while she rested on a crate that was sitting in the middle of the herd.

"Uh, excuse me?" A soft voice rang out. Ayame's eyes widened as she reached out for a knife in her pocket and looked around.

"Who the hell is there?" She exclaimed in Xingese, hopefully scaring off the person who was in the car. She called out to Megumi, "Do you see anything?"

"The crate," she pointed. Ayame turned to see a half broken suit of armor, wrapped up in a crate. She looked in the eyes to see that they were awkwardly glowing.

"Hi!" the armor said.

Ayame screamed in Amestrian, "HOLY CRAP THAT SUIT OF ARMOR IS POSSESSED!" At the time, Ayame didn't care about her appearance. She kept to the boy look that she ran off with after the incident with the gold and the Alchemists. She read something in the paper that warned the people of a con artist of the name The Dark Night Alchemist. She almost tore up the paper, thinking that con artist had conned her too—taking the name she wanted when she became a State Alchemist. However, Megumi corrected her older sister saying that the Dark Night Alchemist was her.

She tried to throw her knife at the space between the helmet and the body, but the armor said, "No, stop! I'm not a ghost!"

"What?" Ayame gasped, looking at the armor. She lifted up the head and saw that no one was in there. Surprised, she dropped the head and screamed. "OH MY GOD!"

The armor chuckled, "I'm Alphonse."

"I think I just shit my pants again," Ayame stepped away from the armor, but then realized she saw something in the neck of the armor. "Hold up, you have a blood seal on your armor… don't tell me…" She looked at where her sister would be, back at her leg, and then back at Alphonse. "Your soul is bound to that piece of armor."

"Where did you get that idea?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know, but how the hell did you do it? It wasn't a result of a failed human transmutation, was it?" It was silent between the suit of armor and the Xingese girl. The two looked like they were staring at each other.

Both of them exclaimed again, "Where did you get that idea?"

"Does it matter?" Ayame exclaimed, "All that we know is that you're a soul bound to a piece of armor and you don't care about it?"

"My brother and I are trying to get our bodies back," he implied.

Ayame rolled her eyes, "Oh! So where's your brother? Is he in the other car with the goats?"

"No, he has his body, but he's missing an arm and a leg." Ayame froze. A description like that made her believe that this was the reaction to a failed human transmutation. She started to get sick in her stomach. Her and her siblings were lucky—they lost things that weren't as important to them… well, Ayame needed her leg, but Tatsuya's ability to reason and Megumi's hair growth… those were little things. She slowly put a hand on her right thigh, reminding herself how bad it felt to lose that leg. "Are you okay?"

Ayame snapped out of her thinking, "Yeah! I was just thinking how it would feel to be missing limbs. So, is he…?"

"He has automail in place of his missing limbs," Al said, "In fact, we're going to Risembool to get them fixed."

"What?" Ayame looked at the suit of armor, "But isn't that going to take a long time for that to get fixed?"

"No, my brother is an alchemist. He's famous actually."

"Famous? How so?"

"He's the youngest State Alchemist." Ayame's heart dropped. She didn't think if she was going to be the youngest State Alchemist, but now she saw Al's brother as a rival. She wanted to be better than this kid. "He's the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Ayame blankly stared at Al. "Aren't you supposed to be the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"That's what everyone says, but no." The train started to slow down. Ayame started to freak out. She knew that if the conductor came to check on the sheep, they would get kicked off the train immediately. "What's wrong?"

"You didn't see us coming into the car?" Ayame asked.

"No, I didn't. Are you supposed to be in here?"

Ayame put the head back on Al, "If anyone asks, you're the only one here." She disappeared like her sister, using the alchemic transformation instead of using the alkahestric transformation that her sister uses. She stood in the same corner as her sister. The car door opened and a kid with long blonde hair and a red jacket was standing there. "Hey Al! I'll be back, just stay in here."

Al moved his head, "Okay brother!" The door closed and Ayame reappeared. "That was my brother."

"He sure is a little pipsqueak," she muttered. Instantly, the door flew open and Ayame disappeared. The boy was pissed, looking through the car and looking for someone who called him a pipsqueak.

"Did you say anything about me, Al?" he looked at his brother coldly.

"I-I think you just heard something, brother. It wasn't me." The kid jumped off the car, closing the door and walking away. Ayame waited until she couldn't hear the "clunk" of his walking and then reappeared.

"I'm sorry, he's sensitive when people call him small," Al apologized.

"No, I should be sorry. I didn't know he would be that close," she murmured.

"I forgot, what's your name?"

Ayame, remembering that she was looking like a boy, quickly ran through a list of boy names. "My name is… Avery…." She could feel her sister glaring at her, thinking _that was a stupid name… now everyone thinks you're a girl, Aya. _

"Avery," he repeated, "How do you know so much about alchemy?"

"I'm an alchemist!" Ayame exclaimed, "I want to be a State Alchemist in the future—maybe sometime now. It was one thing I loved to do before…" She gulped. She had to come up with some weird scenario to show that Megumi doesn't exist and at times, she pretends that she does. She also had to come up with the scenario that she hated her older brother. A great idea came up in her mind, but she wasn't sure if Megumi would like it. "Before my sister was killed by my brother."

"What? How did that happen?" She could feel Megumi screaming at her, ready to throw a knife at her head.

It would all tie up together, Ayame thought, "Failed Human Transmutation."

Al gasped. "Yeah, I know. If I had known that her soul could be bound to a piece of scrap like this," she knocked on the breast plate, "Then maybe things would've been a hell lot easier for me."

"Can you explain more? I don't want you to feel hurt if it makes you that way—"

"Oh, no it's okay," Ayame found a spot to sit in front of the armor. "See, my brother was trying to resurrect…" At the same time, she was trying to figure out what he was trying to resurrect. "Our great grandfather. He had to teach us one thing about alchemy and never did. My brother wanted to use it for his State Alchemist exam and show the world that he was a great person, not the terrible one that people thought he was." Yeah, that was working out fine. Al believed every last thing that came out of Ayame's mouth. "I-I didn't perform the transmutation, my sister and my brother did. In the end, I found my sister's shirt on the ground where they did it, a pile of nothing blown to bits by a gun and my brother killing the monster he made." Ayame looked down at her feet, sighing, "Sometimes, I act like she's still here. Like she's behind me watching me and telling me to do the same thing that killed her. Ugh," she threw a small piece of wood, "Why she wants me to do alchemy is a good question, maybe for revenge."

Megumi was now behind Ayame, just as she had described, and was whispering something in her ear. "What's with all of these lies?" Ayame quickly moved to glance at her sister before looking back at the crate. "She was just there… I felt her."

"I-I'm sorry about your sister."

"Thanks," Ayame muttered, "but you don't have to feel sorry. You don't know me too well… yet."

The train started moving again. Al looked around, "Do you think my brother made it back on the train?"

Ayame's eyes widened, "Now that you're saying that, I didn't hear the clunking in his step!"

"Oh no! He's supposed to get on the train so he can fix me after he gets his arm fixed! Ugh! Why does he have to be so stupid sometimes?"

Ayame chuckled, "Well, once we get to Risembool, I can get you down from the cart and he can meet you there."

"Actually, we're from Risembool."

"Oh!" Ayame smiled, "Well maybe I can just take you home."

The two looked at each other. What was home now? Ayame considered the apartment in East as her home as of now… she had no idea what her family was doing right now. They were probably going to big lengths to find their two daughters… but she knew that none of them would consider passing the Great Desert. Maybe the Changs were after them… Ayame felt sick. She could easily escape their hands, but Megumi? Using Alkahestry was like stabbing herself with a sword when it came to the Changs. The reason why she learned Alkahestry was for the protection of the Chang family—she really wanted to "babysit" May.

"I-I don't know Avery, you may not be able to lift this crate."

"I can try, can I?" she asked, trying to lift one end of it. However, just as Al said, she found it troublesome to get him off the ground. Unhappy about the results, Ayame sat back down in front of the crate. "Damn, for just a suit of armor, you're pretty heavy Al."

He laughed nervously, "Well, maybe someone can help you."

"Or arrest me," she murmured.

"Just say you're a friend of ours!" Al added, "They'll believe you. Like say you're one of Major Armstrong's subordinates who wanted to keep me busy."

"M-Major Armstrong?" She asked, "Who's that?"

Al went on explaining how his brother became a State Alchemist and how Colonel Roy Mustang came to them a couple of days after the failed human transmutation giving them a sliver of hope of becoming a State Alchemist. He then went on to talk about the serial killer who was targeting State Alchemists named Scar and how his brother and him fought him, but barely made it in one piece. He added that Major Armstrong, this big, muscular man, decided to escort them safely to Risembool. "What do these people look like?" Ayame asked.

Roy Mustang was a man with messy black hair and black eyes—similar to what Ayame looked like. There aren't any big characteristics that define him unlike Armstrong, but Al did point out that he uses flame alchemy. Armstrong was a big muscular man that liked to take his shirt off when ever he was battling. He sparkles a lot and has gauntlets that he uses for alchemy. Ayame started to connect the pieces together. She knew she saw two men like that chasing her in the alleys of East City when she was caught conning the man at the fruit stand.

She had it all connected now: Armstrong was the bald, big man with the one curl of hair at his forehead and the mustache. He was the one who made the wall that she climbed over and got away. Mustang was the Xingese looking man that Ayame sprayed water on and who also attacked her first.

Ayame got up later and opened the door partly to let some air flow through. She kept on petting the sheep, who didn't bother to eat her trench coat. She looked back in the corner where Megumi was curled up in a ball, trying to get some sleep. She watched as the country side started to appear and the sun started to set. After awhile, the train stopped and the door opened up. Two men helped to unload the sheep off the car while Ayame disappeared with her sister and watched the men take the armor down. The sheep were loaded into a car while Al stayed at the station, all alone. Once the men were gone for good, she reappeared. "How are you able to do that?"

"Do what?" she asked, looking at him.

"Disappear."

"I-I don't really know…" Ayame stared at her hands, "I-I just know what to do and it works like that. Sorry I'm not much help. My grandfather was a great alchemist who could disappear like that. He taught me it when I was very little and since then, I've been able to do it."

Ayame sat quietly with Al, playing with blades of grass that she found in between the cracks of concrete. Every now and then, Al and her would casually talk about things that happened between them. Ayame really wanted to help Al and rebuild him, but he told her that only his brother could do such a thing and it would be safer if he did it. She sighed deeply as she kept on transmuting pieces of grass into different figures. "You can transmute without a circle?"

"Huh?" Ayame looked up at Al after turning another pile of grass into a small grass sword.

"You just clapped your hands like my brother and turned a pile of grass into a toy sword," Al pointed out, "You saw the Truth, didn't you?"

"Truth?" Ayame was trying to play the confused little boy. She remembered seeing Truth at the gate, asking her why she had done this. She told him, "My brother forced me to do this. He should be the one to pay, correct?"

Truth only replied, "You did it too and for that, you need a sacrifice."

"My brother!" she exclaimed, "Take him!"

"He's already passed through the Gate," Truth implied, "And your loving sister. What do you have to offer me?"

Ayame remembers taking a step back before she fell to the ground with only one leg. After that, she was screaming in the room where the transmutation took place, begging her brother to get back her leg.

She looked back at her leg. She carefully lifted up a part of her shorts to show where her leg had first been taken and where it had been replaced. There was a slight discoloration in her leg, showing a dark tan colored spot around the thigh and another scar to wrap around it. Truth took her leg there and Tatsuya brought it back, placing it there. "Okay, I'm going to tell you something that I don't want anyone else to know… I tried to perform a human transmutation to bring back my sister." Ayame was just trying to make it seem like she had a Philosopher's Stone at the time, so she added, "My brother was there to… find out what the hell I was doing and he just happened to know a way to get my leg back." She stood up, showing Al the scar on her thigh, "This is how much Truth took and for my brother… well, he ended up killing some people in order to get my leg back." She sat back in front of him, "I don't know who this Truth person is, but maybe that's the person who had my leg in the first place." She sighed deeply, "You promise to not let anyone know of this, correct?"

Al gulped, "I promise. But what if you perform alchemy? People are going to notice."

Ayame reached into her pocket, grabbing out a knife that she used when she knew that her alchemy wouldn't be useful. She started to draw a simple transmutation circle on the top of her left hand. "This should work, huh?"

Al screamed, "You could be a little less dramatic about it, Avery!"

She laughed, "It's no big deal. I've gotten hurt so many times where it's second nature."

Night fell, and Al's brother didn't return. He got pissed that he left him here over night, but Ayame reassured him that if anyone comes to steal him, she'll fight back. Little did she know that she was putting a foot in her mouth. Two drunk farmers started to head for the station, calling out for their girlfriends and saying nasty things about them. Al started to get nervous, Ayame could feel Megumi hiding behind her as she watched the two men approach the station. "Hey! I think that's your girl over there!" One of them tried not to slur as he swished his bottle around.

"No way, that's a boy!" Ayame smirked, at least the disguise was working. One of the men squinted, "Hey, there's a suit of armor right next to him! Maybe we can jack it and we can get some more money. Then we can get the hell out of here!"

"Oh no you don't!" Ayame muttered as they got closer. She decided to make a run for it, hiding behind the crate as the men started to look at armor. Without saying a word, they decided to pick it up and grab the pieces of scrap metal.

"Avery! Help me!" Ayame clapped her hands together and pressed them to the ground, making the only light source around them disappear.

"Hey! What's going on?" Ayame clapped her hands again and touched her eyes. Instead of the usual black irises she used, they turned white and the outsides of them were black. She was able to see in the darkness as if it was daylight. The men were carefully trying not to get knocked off the station, but Ayame couldn't help but knock the one who wasn't carrying the crate down.

"A ghost!" they exclaimed, dropping the crate and breaking Al free from it, but all the pieces of metal were scattered around. They tried to run away, but Ayame was gaining close on them, using her knife to scar their wrists and any open skin. The bottle that one man held dropped to the ground, breaking into pieces and giving another weapon for Ayame to use. She grabbed the neck of the bottle and smashed it into the head of the man. The other guy looked confused as he tried to look for her. She decided to go easy on him and tied him up. She opened a storage room, ditched the two men in there and locked it. When that was all over, the people at the station found a way to turn the lights back on.

Casually, she came over to where the men dropped Al, set the armor back up and took care of the crate. She reconstructed it, placed Al part by part in the crate. "Avery, is that you?"

"Yup," she smiled brightly, but knew that Al couldn't see her. "Don't worry about the men, they're taking a nap in a storage closet."

"How did you do that?" he exclaimed, "It was pitch black and there's no way anyone could see!"

Once again, Ayame shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. One day, I was doing alchemy and I turned off the lights. Then, I touched my eyes and I could see in the dark—almost as if it was daylight." She sighed, "I'm sorry I'm not much help. I don't know how I do things." The story about Ayame and her dark alchemy was true—she didn't really know how it came to be. She just remembered practicing alchemy in her room when the lights went off. She touched her eyes and could see in the dark. She eventually found her way through her house and the lights went back on.

She sat back down next to Al and started to daze off. He kept on asking her questions, but she kept on giving half-awake responses. "Sorry," she murmured, "I am really tired. I could answer some more tomorrow…"

"Thank you for everything you did today, Avery," he added as Ayame dosed off, feeling her sister laying back on her back.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist... if I did, there would be twin Xingese girls messing everything up. And when I say everything... I mean EVEROYAITHING.** **Please review! Thank you!**

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><p>"Brother!" Al shouted in the morning, "You're back!"<p>

"Yeah, sorry about that Al, we kind of missed our train back there," he apologized. Al and his brother explained what had happened on both sides. The brother found out about a doctor who used the Philosopher's Stone back in the Ishvalan Conflict. However, when Al told the story about Avery and how he saved his life last night and repaired the crate that broke, his golden eyes widened. He pointed at the curled black ball next to the crate, "You mean this kid?"

Al turned, "Yeah! That's Avery!" He started to shout, "Hey Avery! Wake up!"

Ayame slowly opened her eyes. She had her head buried in her arms and could feel the warmth of the sun on her back. She finally popped her head up to the boy she saw at that she accidentally called him short. He was short, but she knew now to never make fun of him for that. As she thought of that, she thought, what a lie! I'm still going to make fun of him for being so short. How old is he anyways? 10?

She looked to see that Al was all right and the big muscular man was now carrying him. This must be Armstrong, she thought, but then gasped when she realized that he was the one who created the wall that she easily jumped over when they were chasing her. She smirked slightly; she knew that the disguise was good enough to fool him. They were looking for a girl, not a boy.

She pulled her self up, with help from the crate. She didn't say anything as she towered over the blonde boy. He gawked as he pointed at her, "How old are you?"

Ayame knew that in order to be in the military, she needed to be at least 18. She's fifteen and turning sixteen in July. "I'm 17," she stated.

"You're just a year older than brother then!" Al pointed out. The boy looked at her, amazed that she was this tall and only 17. Ayame stood at maybe 5'5 and could feel that she was still growing while the boy was probably breaking out 5 feet.

Armstrong came to Ayame, pressing her against his chest. "WHAT A GREAT ALCHEMIST YOU ARE, YOUNG BOY! SAVING A BOY LIKE ALPHONSE IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT AND KEEPING HIM SO SAFE! WE ARE GRATEFUL OF YOUR ACTIONS!" He was crying with sparkles all over his face. Armstrong didn't have his shirt off this time, but when he let go of Ayame, she was very stunned.

"Uhh… thank you," Ayame tried to gain her balance. "My name is Avery."

"AVERY!" Armstrong exclaimed, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ACTIONS! I AM MAJOR ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG!"

She turned over to the boy, "Your brother says that you're known as the Fullmetal Alchemist, is that correct?"

He smiled proudly, "So you've heard of me, tell me, what great things have you witnessed or heard of?"

"Actually, nothing," Fullmetal slumped down, feeling useless and unloved. "But I heard that a lot of people mistake your brother for being you."

He snapped back up, "That's true. I'm glad someone saw the difference."

"Well…" Ayame put her hand behind her head; scratching it and making Fullmetal blow a gasket. He knew just by the way he was acting that he thought that Al was the Fullmetal Alchemist. "So, you're the younger brother, right?"

Fullmetal took his right hand and punched her square in the face. Ayame could feel the metal and how hard it was to be punched. She fell to the ground where Megumi was holding on to her and was holding on to a knife that she concealed. "No, don't!" Ayame pleaded with the air, "It's okay, I can take the mistake."

Fullmetal looked at her with confusion. "I-I'm sorry," Ayame explained, "I sometimes talk to myself to make it seem like my sister is alive."

"You are really something," he said, folding his arms across his chest and looking away from her. Ayame didn't take his words lightly. She exploded in his face, screaming back, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Letting her once deep voice rise to the feminine like voice.

"Brother!" Al exclaimed. Armstrong took the two apart and told them that they should get going. They wanted to leave Ayame back at the station, but her stomach growled loudly and she groaned. She explained how she's a traveler and doesn't have a lot of money to get a train back home. She also explained how she got here, but Fullmetal shook it off saying that for helping his brother, she could stay with them for a while.

The followed the boys behind them with Megumi holding on to her hand as they walked. "Are you going to get me some food?" she whispered into her sister's ear.

"Yeah, I'll find a way to stuff it in my pockets. But just to be safe, you should find a spot where ever we're going to stay and after this is done, I'll give you the food," she muttered quietly.

While the twins were talking, Fullmetal couldn't help but wonder more about the mysterious alchemist. He kept on muttering to herself and touching a violent scar on her right thigh. His eyes met the ones of the alchemist, who immediately shot them down. She muttered to her sister, "They're being suspicious."

Ayame didn't say anything until they reached the house with a sign that said Rockbell Automail. A young girl with blonde hair opened the door. Fullmetal chuckled nervously, "Hello Winry." Immediately, a wrench was thrown at his head and Fullmetal was knocked to the ground.

"You are so wreck-less Ed!" Winry exclaimed and started to rant about Fullmetal breaking his arm every now and then. Armstrong then introduced himself to the short lady who called her self Pinako. Ayame hid behind the big man, but was still pulled out by Winry. "Who the hell is this?"

Al cleared his throat, "T-That's Avery! He saved me from these bandits at the station."

"Hello," Ayame managed to say, waving at her. She looked at him with love struck eyes. Ayame shook her head, coughed and frowned, "W-Why is she looking at me like that?"

Winry came up to her with googly eyes. "Hi! Hi! I'm Winry Rockbell, a good friend of the Elric brothers…" She started to rant about things she liked to do.

Armstrong whispered in Ayame's ear, "I think she has something for you."

Ayame froze up. She didn't really plan for something like this to happen. "I-I'm sorry Winry, but if you like me then… I-I already have someone."

"WHAT?" She exclaimed, hitting Ayame in the head with the wrench. She thought that it wouldn't hurt as much, but found out the hard way that Winry packed a punch. Megumi dropped down to help her sister, but she was signaled not to do anything until they looked away.

"Winry, that is no way to treat your guests!" Pinako yelled. "Please, come inside." Armstrong, Ed, and Al started to head inside. However, Al stopped and looked to Ayame.

"Are you going to come in?"

"I-I'll be there in a second." The door closed behind Al and Megumi appeared right next to her sister. She dragged her sister's body down to the dirt where she drew an alkahestry transmutation circle and marked it off with her knives. She healed her sister's head injury. "Thanks," she looked down at her sister's pants, "Hey, did you know that was there?"

"Huh?" She looked at her shorts to find a small envelope. It was directly written to Ayame and Megumi, but the text was in Xingese. They started to feel sick. Just then, they heard the door click and Megumi disappeared.

"Avery, is it?" Armstrong asked, "Why don't you come inside. You must be famished."

"I-It's okay," she waved them off, "I-I can stay out here."

"No, I insist!" Armstrong walked off the porch and picked up Ayame. The twins exchanged surprised glances as she was carried into the house, leaving Megumi standing outside.

Ayame sat at the table, glancing down at her feet while Winry was fixing up a new arm for Ed. Armstrong was somewhere else around the house. "So, you're the one who saved Alphonse from the bandits last night," a small lady said as she set a bowl on the table. "You look kind of scrawny. How could you have done it?"

"Oh," Ayame laughed nervously, "I'm an alchemist."

Ed's golden eyes widened. This boy is an alchemist? "Don't go running off to the military boy," the old lady eyed back at Ed who pouted at her remark. "Do you know what they call alchemists who go to the military? Dogs of the Military. They do all the dirty work."

Ayame did know what the old lady was saying, but did it make her change her ideas about it? No, it would take more than just a couple of harsh words to make her change her mind. "She offered to fix me a couple times, brother," Al added, "but I wasn't so sure back there, so…" Ayame looked at Al with a look that meant, "Don't tell him about the transmutation circle."

She ignored the conversation and started to open up the letter that was left to her. When she realized whose handwriting it was, her heart started to beat faster. She was given a glass of water from the old lady, and took a sip of it. She skipped the majority of the letter and saw the last lines… then she dropped the glass. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the broken glass on the floor. Ayame had a strong hold on the glass that her hand was now bleeding. When she folded up the piece of paper, she realized what had happened. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," the old lady was about to get a broom and a dust pan to pick up the glass when Ayame just got down on the floor, clapped her hands together and subconsciously repaired the glass back to normal. When she put it back on the table, she couldn't help but notice that Ed was staring at her.

"Say, that note is written entirely in Xingese," the old lady looked at the note, "Do you know what it says?"

Ayame looked down at the floor, not answering to anyone. "Y-You just…" Ed stammered, "You saw it, didn't you?" His voice turned cold as Ayame just sat there pretending not to hear anything they were saying. Ed walked all the way to where Ayame was and lifted her off the chair with one hand. "Answer me! You saw the Truth! You too performed the taboo!"

"Brother!" Al exclaimed.

She gulped, looking down at his missing arm. "Do you know that if the military finds out about that, you won't be able to pass the State Alchemist exam? And yet, you still have dreams about doing that!" Ayame knew that she has already broken two out of the three major rules when it came to becoming a State Alchemist. She already tried to create a human being and she has made gold to con people. But rules were made to broken—that was her idea—and she had more secrets about her past than any other person could handle. Secrets ridiculed the Mikimoto family and it became a custom to them.

"What was your reason when you did it?" she murmured, "Because if I were to tell you mine… then you would understand. My sister and I… we—" she paused, trying to look like they held a bond, "You and your brother… I see this bond that can't be broken. You sacrificed one of your limbs to get him back… and I sacrificed one of my limbs to try to get him back."

"You didn't sacrifice your limbs—"

"At one point I did…" Ayame pulled her shorts up, "My brother was wondering what happened to me after he heard gun shots and screaming… and he had a Philosopher's Stone." She was already back on the ground and Ed was a couple steps away from her. She looked away, "I told you guys earlier about him having a Philosopher's Stone… and how I needed to destroy it. A man like him with no mentality cannot possess such a power." Ayame reached for the note in her pocket and showed to the Elric brothers, "This is from him. He's telling me his exact location in this letter and telling me that I should go and fight him once and for all. Xingese parents raised us, so we were taught how to fight at a very young age. In fact, my brother has no hesitation of killing any one that goes in his way. In this letter, he says one last thing: kill me or get killed by me."

It was quiet between the alchemists as Ayame pulled the door open, letting the cold autumn airflow. "I should head back home to East City—"

Ed came up and grabbed her arm with his good one, "No. We will go with you back to East City. I-I think I want to know more about your brother and his Philosopher's Stone…"

She looked at them solemnly, "You would do that?"

"You did save my brother from those bandits," he murmured.

Ayame nodded slightly, "Thanks. But I just want you to do one thing: Keep my record of the human transmutation a secret."

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><p><strong>AN: Things got awkward. I'm sorry.**

**EDIT: I had to edit this story earlier... Sorry if I accidentally get things mixed up... I don't know why it happened, but it just did. It made me upset! Dx  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: By the looks of the outline that I wrote for this series, it's going to go by pretty quickly… but I have extended Ayame's story all the way up until… well until her life ends. She has a couple of big events in her life (which will end up as chapters of stories) and then some small stupid things that happen (which will end up as one shots or drabbles.)**

**I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist… if I did… there wouldn't be a RoyStache (but it's honestly better than RoyPatch)**

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><p>After Ayame admitted to performing the human transmutation to Ed, the two alchemists didn't talk much to each other. She had to explain to him about her relationship with Megumi and how she felt like she was always watching her. But while they had their conversation, Ayame could not help but notice the metal arm and leg that he had. She knew that Al said something about them, but never really took a full grasp of how he got them.<p>

Three days passed. The twins left the residence and started adventuring out in the small village. Winry kept to working on Ed's new arm and leg. They found that the village was different from living in the cities all their lives. Even in Xing, the Mikimoto twins lived in the city and city living was accustomed to them.

They ventured out into a secluded place in the village and when it was clear, Megumi finally showed herself. She had a glum look on her face, wiping the dirt off her face, "What's wrong?"

"It's that alchemist," Megumi muttered in Xingese.

"Ed?" Ayame asked. "You don't think Ed did the same thing, do you?" The twins were facing away from each other, watching the river in front of them flow.

She nodded slowly, "There is no doubt about it. Only he would know about seeing the truth and the human transmutation. Plus, his arm and leg is missing… It must've been his sacrifice to see the truth."

"That's a lot coming from you," Ayame smirked, turning towards her concerned sister. "You usually don't talk about alchemy."

"Well," she grumbled, "I did _lose_ that ability about a year ago." Ayame looked down in guilt. "Do you think that because we performed the human transmutation that you won't get your certification?"

"That's a load of bullshit," Ayame spat, "if Ed was able to do that _and_ get his certification, then we can easily get it!" She came over to her sister and put a hand on her shoulder, "Besides, breaking the rules was one thing that we always did."

"What? No, that was always you who broke the rules!"

She rolled her eyes, "It may be like that, but you follow me without any doubt. We broke the rules when we left home, we broke the rules when I kept on learning alchemy... we broke the rules when we said we wouldn't guard May."

Megumi stood there, looking down at her shoes, "Okay, so we did that. But do we have to break more rules?"

"Most importantly, you're here illegally," she smiled sincerely, "And that, I doubt you would do." Megumi kicked her sister, but it was blocked by her. "And now let's do this." Megumi used Ayame's arm and flipped right in front of her, standing a couple feet away in a ready stance. She motioned her to come over, but she didn't fidget.

Suddenly, Megumi disappeared and reappeared in front of Ayame, swiping her with a knive in her hands. She took a couple steps back, "Jeez, Megumi, I didn't think you were going to make it like that!"

"I have to stay on my toes, sister," she replied, "and so do you. Give it all you got!" She threw five knives at the tree behind Ayame and activated the transmutation circle.

_Great_, Ayame thought as she moved to the side of the exploding tree, _Megumi is using alkahestry. I wonder if she's going to that teleportation thing that we created when we were ten. Man, if she does that, then I'm done for!_

She jumped on a jagged rock in the middle of the river and clapped her hands. She couldn't use her shadow or dark alchemy in the daylight, for her abilities were too weak to block out the sun. The only thing she could do was use the resources she had around her. She touched the water to flush out her sister, but when she looked around, she noticed that she was missing. "Aw, shit."

Another knive came at her, and Ayame kicked it with her foot. Megumi appeared out of the trees and started to spar hand on hand with Ayame. They kept on blocking each other until Ayame flipped her over into the river. She clapped her hands, ready for another transmutation before Megumi charged at her. Surprised, Ayame grabbed her forehead and pushed her away from her body. "Ahh!" Megumi flailed her arms around, "You freaking blinded me, Ayame! You goddamn...!"

She stared at her sister blankly, "W-Wait, what? Y-You can't see?" She didn't know she could use that ability. All that she knew so far was that she could destroy light and see in the darkness. Now there was a new ability that she created.

"NO!" Megumi tried to find her sister, punching the air. "NOW CAN YOU FUCKING GET MY FUCKING SIGHT BACK?"

"You can read Chi, right?" Ayame folded her arms across her chest.

"No shit," Megumi grumbled, "It's required for alkahestry!"

"Then you should find out where I am," she implied. Megumi closed her eyes, focusing on her energy. After a whiel she reached out for Ayame, grabbing her jacket collar and throwing her to the ground. "I found you!" she sung.

"Okay, you did," Ayame laughed, clapping her hands and touching her sister's forehead. The pupils in her eyes there were once gone came back and Megumi looked up at the green leaves on the tree.

"Yay!" Megumi smiled as she shot back up and ran up to the shoreline. She turned invisible once again before grabbing the cloak she discarded before the sparring. Ayame jumped to the shoreline and joined her sister. "That was a good fight, Avery."

She sighed, "Same here, Megan."

* * *

><p>The next morning, Alphonse waited outside the Rockbell residence still torn up into a couple of pieces of armor. Ayame and Megumi came out of the house, but stopped at the crate to greet Alphonse, "Good morning," Ayame smiled as Megumi stayed close behind her sister, invisible to eye.<p>

"Good morning, Avery!" Al responded. She looked at the dark space between Al's head and his neck. He shifted a little bit, "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm just curious, Al," Ayame looked around his armor, "Why couldn't you let me help fix your armor?"

Al looked down before looking back up at the curious Xingese alchemist, "My brother knows how to do it… I-I don't feel comfortable letting anyone else do so."

"I'm sorry Al," Ayame looked down. "But then… how did your brother lose his limbs?"

"There was an accident a couple of years ago when we were kids," Ed came out of the house with his hands in his pockets, "During the Ishvalan Conflict." The Ishvalan… Ayame had no idea about this country's history… just the alchemy associated with it. "And why you should know is none of your business."

"Hey!" She snapped back at the Fullmetal Alchemist, "I should know because you know the biggest secret that I have to hold!" She pointed to her leg, "And I'm on to you, Fullmetal, I have my own hunches of what the hell you did."

"What did I do then? Tell me!" Ed shouted from the porch.

You performed a human transmutation, Ayame was about to say, but then she bit her lip and looked away. "I-I can't."

"That's because you don't know!" Ed got off the porch and stood up to her. "Don't assume you know something!"

"You should've done the same thing too," she looked away from him, "You shouldn't have assumed anything—"

"I didn't assume anything… I saw what I saw," Ed grumbled as he took apart the crate around Al. He put the pieces to the side of Al before clapping his hand and fixing the missing pieces. Ayame stared in awe, pointing and calling Ed, "YOU GODDAMN HYPOCRITE!"

"What?" He shouted back at her.

"You just transmuted without a circle just as I did last night! I can't believe you were acting all pissed off at me because I performed a human transmutation and now that I know that it's true!"

"What's true?"

"THAT YOU PERFORMED A HUMAN TRANSMUTATION!" Ayame screeched, grinding her teeth and pointing at the Fullmetal Alchemist. All of them were silent as the wind started to pick up. Ayame glowered at the ground, "So, what did you transmute?"

"It's none of your business," Ed spat.

Ayame rolled her eyes, "All right, so I guess I'm deal with a goddamn midget hypocrite of an alchemist—"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET?"

She shrugged her shoulders, smirking and pissing him off even more, "I don't know, either you or the lady inside that house," she pointed in the direction of the house.

Ed transmuted the top part of his new arm into a blade and charged after Ayame. As he got closer, she closed her eyes and waited for him to swipe. He tried to hit her, but then she jumped up highly and he missed. Major Armstrong grabbed her, "We have a train to catch soon, Edward. You shouldn't be fighting with young Avery here," he patted her back as Al stood up and stood next to the Major. The two young alchemists glowered at each other. "Is something the matter here?"

"No," they both replied as Ayame was set on the ground. She turned away from Ed, walking towards the train station. Ed and Al said their goodbyes to Winry and Pinako while Major Armstrong told them to be at the train station before the noon train to East City leaves. Ayame sat in the station, with a ticket for the noon train in her hands. Megumi stood behind her, invisible and watched the people coming off the ten o'clock train. "So what do we do now?"

"I can only offer them Tatsuya's Philosopher's Stone or the information behind it," Ayame muttered in Xingese, "They have it a lot worst than we do."

"What?" Megumi complained, touching her hair. At one point, the twins had long black hair that was loved by everyone in their district of the Capitol City. Megumi braided her hair while Ayame had it tied in a ponytail and wrapped in bandages. Before the human transmutation, Megumi's hair got stuck during a training exercise out side of the Mikimoto family compound. They couldn't get the hair out without cutting it parallel to the ends of her ears. She was upset that her hair that had taken years to grow was cut off, but she was reassured that it would grow back. Her hair completed her beauty as a Mikimoto girl. Ayame kept her hair long when she left Xing, but when she got to the ruins of Xerxes and met a couple of Ishvalan people (who just warned her to be careful of the Amestrians who were racist), she decided to cut her hair past her shoulders and trimmed her side bangs on the right side of her face. Her hair represented the connection she had to Xing… but now; there was no such connection.

"You lost your hair, so what?" She grumbled.

Megumi slapped the side of her sister's face, "You can be so inconsiderate, Ayame!" She heard a clunking noise coming closer, so Megumi became quiet and Ayame turned to the Alchemists. Ed and her still glowered at each other while Armstrong just stared at different things at the station and Al fiddled with his fingers. He knew that Avery attempted a human transmutation and that they were all on the same page, but he couldn't understand why his brother was acting so cold against him. He was only trying to do what they were trying to do: resurrect a family member that they loved so much. Avery loved his little sister, and the Elric brothers loved their mother.

On the train back to East City, Ayame sat across from her invisible sister in the seats across from Armstrong, Ed and Al. She had her arms crossed in front her chest as she muttered, "You're trying to find a way to get your bodies back, correct?" Al's armor shifted as he turned towards her.

"You don't need to get into this, Avery," Ed muttered, "By the looks of it, what ever Truth took from you… you got it back. But for what price?"

"My brother has a Philosopher's Stone," Ayame said with determination, "I know it. He was the one who returned my leg… but he was also the person who ripped everything that I had away from me." She decided to create a scenario that made Tatsuya look like a bad person. She had portrayed him as a loving brother who wanted something, but now she needed a reason to kill him. "He killed my parents and the rest of my family to make that stone. His reasons?" Ayame sighed, "There isn't anything that I know about his reasons. I don't know why he created a Philosopher's Stone."

"You told me earlier on the train to Risembool," Al started to mention, "That he was trying to resurrect your grandfather so he could teach him a technique that he wanted to learn and take to his State Alchemist exam. What was that technique?"

Ayame decided to make that technique the element-based alchemy that Tatsuya learned how to do. "Light alchemy; the alchemy that uses light as an energy force. He can create light in any dark situation while also creating flash-bomb like affects. While this alchemy may not seem that impressive, it can turn out to be a great asset in things such as wars or conflicts. It can also blind people from its intense light." She sighed deeply, leaning back into her seat, "I want to steal his Philosopher's Stone… but not to bring back my sister. As much as I loved her… I don't think I want to risk another limb for her return. She wouldn't like that. But…" she turned towards the Elric brothers, "I think she would like it if I helped someone else get their bodies back."

"No," Ed shook his head; "You should get your sister back before you turn the stone to us."

Ayame gritted her teeth, "Were you not paying any attention? I just said that I wanted to give the stone to someone else. I'm fine by myself. I can manage on my own—"

"You're a traveler, aren't you?" he asked, "You travel with no home to go to. You're like us. We burned down our house after I received my certification."

"I'll find my ways, Edward," she mused, "And as of now, I don't know what will happen… I could easily die in my brother's hands or live. But I don't regret anything… and in the end, all I see is your bodies back."

Once at the train station, Edward asked Major Armstrong if he could take him to Eastern HQ. He needed to talk to Colonel Mustang right away to ask him something. It had to do with the Philosopher's Stone and how Avery's brother had the stone in his grasp. He felt excited to know that Avery was going to let him get it, but it didn't stop him from wondering why he had said that. He knew that Avery's brother had no mentality and that a person like him shouldn't have that power, but there was another side of the story that Avery wasn't showing. As Ed was about to pile into a taxi, Avery stood at the steps of the station with Megumi right behind him. "What are you doing up there, Avery?" he asked with a smile, "You're coming down with us as well!"

"Attach yourself to the car," Ayame muttered in Xingese, low enough for no one to detect. She walked casually to the car, getting in and looking out the back window. She could detect Megumi's presence on top of the car as it started to move away from the train station and on to Eastern Headquarters. They all rode the taxi in silence. Ayame was practically sitting on one butt cheek as Al took up the majority of the space in the taxi. She couldn't comprehend how Major Armstrong and Al both fit in the taxi, but then again, Ed was a scrimp, and she was just a normal sized, in-reality sixteen year old Xingese alchemist stuck in a car filled with alchemists.

Once at the gates of Eastern Headquarters, Ayame was the first to be pushed out of the taxi. She stood, looking at the path between the gates and the front door. Megumi stood behind her, looking at the place with fear. "Don't worry," she muttered in a low voice, "I'm right here and the only thing bad that will happen is that they will find you."

"Great reassurance, Aya," she muttered back. They walked up to the front steps of the building, climbed a couple flights of stairs before entering an office at the end of the hallway. There were a total of five men and one woman sitting in the office, all looking like they were ready to head home. Well, the Xingese looking man and the woman didn't look like they were leaving for a while. He had a huge stack of papers on the corner of his desk and he was furiously trying to get it all done. The blonde woman peered over at the man before sighing deeply and signing her name on a sheet of paper. "Fullmetal, what are you doing here?" One of the blonde males who smelt like an ashtray turned towards him.

He came up to the Xingese man's desk and the two met, "Fullmetal," he grumbled, signing another piece of paper, moving it to a stack and grabbing another one off another stack. "What are you doing here? I thought you were getting your arm fixed."

"It's fixed," he implied, showing off the new right arm. The Xingese man looked up and met his eyes with the Xingese alchemist. She gasped. That was the man who she broke the water pipe over when they were chasing her. "Who's this that you've brought with you?"

"His name is Avery," Al piped up, "He has a brother that has a Philosopher's Stone." The Xingese man stood up, walking towards the Xingese alchemist. She froze, now noticing how tall he was compared to her.

He took his gloved hand out of his pocket and put it out for her to shake. She took his hand and shook it, "Colonel Roy Mustang."

"Pleasure," she replied, "Avery Martin."

"Fullmetal here believes that your brother has a Philosopher's Stone, is that correct?"

"Yes sir," Ayame replied, "but he currently has no grasp on his mentality and thus, I am under the belief that a man like him should not have a Philosopher's Stone in his possession. He is a man of cruel nature—he has sacrificed my sister in a human transmutation and killed the rest of my family for making the Philosopher's Stone. Why he has it is unknown to me, but as I have been informed, he is out looking and ready to kill me. His intentions are unknown as well."

"Your brother implemented a human transmutation?" He exclaimed, looking surprised at her.

"Yes sir," she nodded, "He wanted to bring our grandfather back to life." She looked at Ed, making a face that told him not to say anything about her performing a human transmutation as well. "Ed told me about his experience with human transmutations… I feel that if I get that Philosopher's Stone away from my brother and give it to him… then I feel that I did some good in my life."

Mustang looked back at the Fullmetal Alchemist, "You're going with him to get that stone?"

"You're not going to hold me back, are you?" He gritted his teeth, staring down at the man.

Colonel Mustang shook his head, "No, it would just go along with your research about the Philosopher's Stone. It fits in quite nicely." He looked back at the Xingese alchemist, examining his every move, "How do you know about the Philosopher's Stone, Avery?"

His question startled her as she snapped out of her thinking and decided to come up with a legit reason, "I-I'm an alchemist. It's my dream to become a State Alchemist when the time comes," she said with determination.

"I like that," he smiled at her with his signature smile before turning to Edward, "Fullmetal. You are to go with Mr. Martin here to find his brother and obtain any information you can get about the Philosopher's Stone. While it may not be in the clearing just yet, you may even receive his Philosopher's Stone. After all of that is done, I order you to come back here and report your findings. Understand?"

"Yeah, sure," Ed groaned. Ayame smiled inside, she was finally going to get somewhere with taking acre of her brother. She couldn't wait until she saw his face again and see his blood pooling over her sandals. As vivid as it may be, Ayame knew that she couldn't hesitate when it comes to her brother. Tatsuya will either kill her or she will kill him.

After the conversation in the office, Ed and Al started to head for a military based hotel within the city, but as they were just talking about how many cenz per night the hotel would cost them, Ayame stopped them by saying, "I know of a hide out in an apartment building where we can stay for the night."

"Is that where you've been staying since you lost your parents?" Ed asked, trying to be sensitive about the event. Ayame shook it off as if it was nothing—leaving Xing also meant leaving her parents. She loved them… well, she loved her biological father, but she had to leave them in order to achieve her dreams.

"Yeah, no one has really bothered about seeing a kid like me in there," she smiled, showing them the way. By now, Major Armstrong had stayed in the office with Colonel Mustang. He was looking out the window, watching the three alchemists talk to each other before walking together down the street.

"Colonel?" Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye asked, pulling her jacket on. "Is something wrong?"

"Do you remember the day we all first met Scar?" he murmured, looking at the eyes of Avery from a far. "There was a girl who passed us who had fooled a vendor into thinking that pile of coal was gold. There is no doubt in my mind that the girl was an alchemist; she got away from us because she burst a water pipe on me." He gritted his teeth, knowing of that incident that made him useless once again. "Avery Martin… he looks a lot like her. I don't remember seeing the face of the Dark Night Alchemist—the name the girl had called herself in Xingese—but he has all of the characteristics that could make him Xingese and a similar trench coat to the Dark Night."

"What are you saying, sir?" she asked.

"We need to keep an eye out on Avery Martin. He may lead us to the Dark Night Alchemist."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I see what you did there, Mustang. Don't hide it. **

**Anyways, if I don't update in a couple of weeks/months, I'm sorry but I have a lot of school work to do and it's only September DD: But I will try to update as much as I can and keep this story alive. This is basically the canon for Ayame and Megumi Mikimoto and how they tie in to the story. **

**Well, keep posted and reviews are nice!**

**Thank you!**


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